Systems and methods for allowing access to a different version of the media asset

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for allowing a user to access a different version of a blocked media asset. These systems and methods allow a first user to request access to the blocked media asset from a second user who has authority to approve access to the blocked media asset. These systems and methods determine different versions of the media asset available from different sources. These systems and methods notify the second user that the first user has requested access to the blocked media asset and include, in the notification, an option to unblock any one of the different versions of the media asset available from the different sources. This allows the second user to determine if there is a version of the media asset that the second user deems suitable for unblocking.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/087,375, filed Mar. 31, 2016, currently allowed, the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Parental control systems that block access to content according to somecriteria are ubiquitous in content delivery platforms. Existing parentalcontrol systems use coarse filtering parameters to determine contentthat is to be blocked and inevitably block content that parents deemacceptable for their children to watch. This problem is particularlyacute in the current media landscape, where different versions of thesame content may be available from a variety of sources. Content mayhave been modified such that different versions of the same contentcontain different objectionable material. Although parents may findcertain versions suitable for their children, conventional parentalcontrol systems may block access to all versions of the content.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are provided herein for allowing a user to access adifferent version of a blocked media asset. These systems and methodsallow a first user to request access to the blocked media asset from asecond user who has authority to approve access to the blocked mediaasset. These systems and methods determine different versions of themedia asset available from different sources. These systems and methodsnotify the second user that the first user has requested access to theblocked media asset and include, in the notification, an option tounblock any of the different versions of the media asset available fromthe different sources. This allows the second user to determine if thereis a version of a media asset that the second user deems suitable forunblocking for the first user.

An interactive media guidance application receives from a first user ona first user equipment device, a request to access a media asset that isblocked for the first user, where the media asset is available from afirst source. For example, the interactive media guidance applicationmay receive a request from a first user (e.g., Teddy) to access a mediaasset (e.g., Total Recall) from a certain content provider (e.g.,streaming service 1) that is blocked for the first user according to theparental control block settings for the first user. For example,parental control settings may require media assets with content ratinghigher than PG-13 be blocked for Teddy. Consequently, the interactivemedia guidance application does not allow Teddy to access Total Recallwhich has a content rating of TV-MA.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application receivesa credential from the first user and determines the identity of thefirst user based on the credential. The credential is a uniqueidentifier associated with the first user such as a string of charactersor bio-metric data (e.g., finger print, retina scan, voice recognitionor another suitable bio-metric data). In some embodiments, theinteractive media guidance application compares the credential receivedfrom the first user with credentials stored in memory (e.g., credentialsstored in user profile databases) to determine the identity of the firstuser. The interactive media guidance application may determine theparental controls settings for the first user based on the credentialreceived from the first user.

Following from the example above, the interactive media guidanceapplication may receive a credential Teddy2004 from Teddy. Theinteractive media guidance application may compare Teddy2004 with thecredentials stored in user profile databases to determine a user profiledatabase associated with credential Teddy2004. For example, theinteractive media guidance application may use the string comparefunction STRCMP( ) of database management language SQL to determinewhich stored credential matches the credential received. Upondetermining the user profile database associated with Teddy2004, theinteractive media guidance application may retrieve the valuescorresponding to the “identity” and “parental control settings” fieldsin the database to determine that the identity of the first user isTeddy and media assets with content rating higher than PG-13 are blockedfor Teddy.

The interactive media guidance application generates, for a second user,a notification that the first user has requested access to the mediaasset, where the notification includes an option to unblock a differentversion of the media asset available from a second source different fromthe first source of the media asset. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application determines different versions of the media asset(e.g., Total Recall) available from different sources (e.g., streamingservice 2, broadcast television). In the notification to the seconduser, the interactive media guidance application may generate fordisplay media asset identifiers corresponding to the different versionsof the media asset from the different sources along with a selectable“unblock” option for each of the different versions of the media asset,allowing the second user to indicate which version of the media asset tounblock.

In some embodiments, to determine the different version of the mediaasset available from a second source different from the first source ofthe media asset, the interactive media guidance application may query adatabase for a list of known sources. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may determine that available sources are streamingservice 1, streaming service 2, streaming service 3 and broadcasttelevision. The interactive media guidance application may then querycontent databases of individual sources to determine if that sourceprovides another version of the media asset. For example, theinteractive media guidance application may query content database ofstreaming service 1 to determine if streaming service 1 provides adifferent version of the media asset Total Recall. The interactive mediaguidance application may repeat this process for all the availablesources to determine all the different versions of the media asset TotalRecall. In this instance, the interactive media guidance application maydetermine that streaming service 1, streaming service 2 and broadcasttelevision provide another version of the media asset but streamingservice 3 does not.

In some embodiments, to determine the different version of the mediaasset available from a second source different from the first source ofthe media asset, the interactive media guidance application may performa search query with the media asset identifier as the search term. Forexample, the interactive media guidance application may perform a searchquery for “Total Recall.” The interactive media guidance application maythen parse through the search query results to identify sources. Forexample, the search query may return results such as streaming service1, streaming service 2, broadcast television and a film critic's blog.The interactive media guidance application may determine that streamingservice 1, streaming service 2, and broadcast television are sourceswhile the film critic's blog search result is irrelevant. Theinteractive media guidance application may query content databases ofstreaming service 1, streaming service 2, and broadcast television for“Total Recall” to determine the different versions of “Total Recall.”

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationgenerates for display an option to view additional informationassociated with the different versions of the media asset. For example,the interactive media guidance application may generate a selectable“view more information” option for each of the different versions of themedia asset. In some embodiments, upon receiving a user selection toview the additional information associated with the different version ofthe media asset, the interactive media guidance application generatesfor display the additional information associated with the differentversion of the media asset. For example, the interactive media guidanceapplication may receive a selection from the second user to view moreinformation about Total Recall from streaming service 2. In response,the interactive media guidance application may generate for displayadditional information associated with Total Recall from streamingservice 2. Additional information may include but is not limited to agenre (e.g., drama, comedy), a content rating (e.g., PG-13, R, TV-MA,TV-Y7), a content code (e.g., D—suggestive dialogue; L—coarse or crudelanguage; S—sexual situations; V—violence), a preview, a description ofobjectionable content, a preview of objectionable content, and a link toan associated webpage.

The interactive media guidance application transmits the notification tothe second user on a second user equipment device. This may allow thesecond user to remotely receive the notification and unblock a differentversion of the media asset for the first user. In some embodiments, theinteractive media guidance application may access a database associatedwith the first user (e.g., first user's user profile) to determine thesecond user who has authority to approve access to blocked media asset.For example, the interactive media guidance application may accessTeddy's user profile database to determine that user Mom is listed ashaving authority to approve access. In some embodiments, the interactivemedia guidance application may access a database associated with thesecond user (e.g., second user's user profile) to determine the seconduser equipment device. For example, the interactive media guidanceapplication may access Mom's user profile database to determine that thenotification should be sent to her mobile device. Following from theexample above, the interactive media guidance application may transmitto Mom a notification on her mobile device that Teddy has requestedaccess to Total Recall from streaming service 1. The interactive mediaguidance application may also include in the notification the option tounblock Total Recall from sources streaming service 2 and broadcasttelevision.

The interactive media guidance application, upon receiving a selectionof the option in the notification, unblocks the different version of themedia asset available from the second source for the first user. Forexample, the interactive media guidance application may receive aselection of the “unblock” option corresponding to Total Recall fromstreaming service 2 from Mom. In response, the interactive mediaguidance application may change the value of the block flag associatedwith Total Recall from streaming service 2 from “true” to “false,”allowing Teddy to access Total Recall from streaming service 2. In someembodiments, the interactive media guidance application queries thefirst source and the second source for available versions of the mediaasset and retrieves metadata associated with each of the availableversions of the media asset. For example, the interactive media guidanceapplication may query, using database management languages (e.g., SQL,JAPQL, CODASYL), content listings databases for different sources todetermine the different versions of the media asset available from thedifferent sources. Upon determining the different versions, theinteractive media guidance application may access data structuresassociated with individual versions of the media asset to retrievemetadata corresponding with that version.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application extractsone or more factors from the metadata associated with each of theavailable versions of the media asset. For example, the interactivemedia guidance application may, using a metadata extraction tool, parsethe metadata associated a version of the media asset to extract variousfactors indicative of properties of that version of the media asset.Factors extracted may be content rating, content codes (e.g.,D—suggestive dialogue; L—coarse or crude language; S—sexual situations;V—violence), duration of content corresponding to each type of contentcode (e.g., 2 minutes of L and 3 minutes of V), subtitle information(e.g., whether inappropriate language has been removed from subtitles),frequency of certain words, cost, time of availability, source.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines a ranking of the available versions of the media asset basedon the one or more factors and generates for display the availableversions of the media asset organized in accordance with the ranking.For example, the interactive media guidance application may use asorting algorithm (e.g., quicksort, heapsort, mergesort or anothersuitable algorithm) with at least one the factors as a sorting parameterto organize the available versions of the media asset in a certainorder. In current systems, the second user has to manually identify thedifferent versions of the media asset available and then look upinformation associated with each version of the media asset to determinewhich version would be most suitable for unblocking. This can be anonerous and time consuming process. Displaying the available versions ofthe media asset organized in accordance with the ranking allows thesecond user to rapidly make informed decisions about which version ofthe media asset to unblock.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the ranking of the available versions of the media assetbased on cost of each of the available versions of the media asset. Theinteractive media guidance application may rank a first version of themedia asset with a lower cost higher than a second version of the mediaasset with a higher cost. Following from the example above, theinteractive media guidance application may extract the valuecorresponding to cost from the metadata of each version of the mediaasset available from streaming service 1, streaming service 2 andbroadcast television. The version of the media asset available frombroadcast television may be free and those available from streamingservice 1 and streaming service 2 may have costs $2.00 and $1.00respectively. The interactive media guidance application may sort thedifferent versions in ascending order according to cost so that theversion of the media asset available from broadcast television is listedfirst followed by the version of the media asset from streaming service2 and the version of the media asset from streaming service 1 is listedlast.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the ranking of the available versions of the media assetbased on duration of content corresponding to a content code for each ofthe available versions of the media asset. The interactive mediaguidance application may rank a first version of the media asset with ashorter duration of content corresponding to the content code higherthan a second version of the content with a longer duration of contentcorresponding to the content code. Following from the example above, theinteractive media guidance application may extract the valuecorresponding to duration of content corresponding to a specific mediaasset code such as violence (V) from the metadata of each version of themedia asset available from streaming service 1, streaming service 2 andbroadcast television. The interactive media guidance application maysort the different versions in ascending order according to duration ofcontent that is violent.

For example, the duration of content corresponding to violence contentcode may be 2 minutes for the version of the media asset available fromstreaming service 1, 0 minutes for the version of the media assetavailable from streaming service 2 and 1 minute for the version of themedia asset available from broadcast television. In this instance, theinteractive media guidance application may list the version of the mediaasset available from streaming service 2 first, followed by the versionof the media asset from broadcast television and the version of themedia asset from streaming service 1 last.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationgenerates for display the one or more factors for determining theranking of the available versions of the media asset and an option toassign one or more priority metrics to the one or more factors. Forexample, the interactive media guidance application may display thefactors that can be used by the sorting algorithm as parameters to orderthe available versions of the media asset. The second user can thenassign a priority metric to each of the factors to indicate the order ofimportance of these factors to the second user when determiningsuitability of a version of the media asset. For example, theinteractive media guidance application may display factors contentrating, content codes, duration of content corresponding to each type ofcontent code and cost as the parameters that will be used to rank thedifferent versions of the media asset. Following from the example above,Mom's primary concern may be to minimize violent content that Teddy isexposed to and her secondary desire may be to choose the lowest costversion of the media asset possible. The interactive media guidanceapplication may provide Mom the option to indicate that the duration ofcontent corresponding to content code violence is of the highestpriority followed by the cost of the different versions of the mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application, uponreceiving an assignment of the one or more priority metrics to the onesor more factors, determines the ranking of the available versions of themedia asset based on the assignment of the one or more priority metricsto the ones or more factors. For example, the interactive media guidanceapplication may order the available versions of the media asset using amulti-parameter weighted sorting algorithm where the factor with higherpriority is used as a sort parameter with greater weight. Following fromthe example above, the interactive media guidance application may sortthe different versions of the media asset available from streamingservice 1, streaming service 2 and broadcast television using a weightedsort algorithm where the sort parameter duration of contentcorresponding to content code violence has a greater weight than sortparameter cost.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application, uponreceiving the selection of the option to unblock the different versionof the media asset available from the first source different than thesecond source of the media asset, queries available devices to determineone or more devices that may be used to view the different version ofthe media asset and generates for display an option to select a devicefrom the one or more devices that may be used to view the differentversion of the media asset. For example, the interactive media guidanceapplication may query a database containing a list of all availabledevices (e.g., a registered devices database) to determine all devicesthat may be used to view the different version of the media asset. Forexample, the interactive media guidance application may determine thatregistered devices include several phones and laptops, a tablet, agaming machine and a TV. The interactive media guidance application maygenerate for display a list of all the registered devices and providethe second user an option to select as many of the registered devices asdesired to unblock the different version of the media asset on.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application, uponreceiving a selection of the device, unblocks the different version ofthe media asset on the selected device. For example, the interactivemedia guidance application may receive a selection indicating that thedifferent version of the media asset is to be unblocked on the tablet.In response, the interactive media guidance application may access adata structure associated with the tablet (e.g., device parental controlsettings data structure) and change the value of the block flag for thetablet from “true” to “false.”

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines whether a device may be used to view the different version ofthe media asset by comparing the property associated with the differentversion of the media asset and a primary function of the device. Forexample, the primary function of the device may be educational and onlycontent that has an educational property should be viewed on the device.For example, the interactive media guidance application may alloweducational media assets (e.g., “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” “The MagicSchool Bus”) to be viewed on a device with educational primary functionbut block entertainment media assets (e.g., “Total Recall,” “The nexttop model”) from being viewed on the device.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the property associated with the different version of themedia asset by retrieving metadata associated with the different versionof the media asset and extracting the property from the metadata, usingthe same or similar process as described above. Property can be but isnot limited to genre, purpose of media asset, content rating, contentcodes, frequency of certain words, source.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application excludesthe device from the one or more devices that may be used to view thedifferent version of the media asset if the property violates theprimary function of the device. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may access a data structure associated with thedevice (e.g., a device properties data structure) to determine theprimary function. Following from the example above, the interactivemedia guidance application may determine that the primary function iseducational and any media asset that is not for educational purposes isnot to be viewed on the device. The interactive media guidanceapplication may determine, using processes described above, that thepurpose of the different version of the media asset is entertainment. Inresponse, the interactive media guidance application may not provide theoption to view the different version of the media asset on the device.As another example, the interactive media guidance application maydetermine that the primary function of the device is work and mediaasset with content codes D (suggestive dialogue) and S (sexualsituation) are not to be viewed on the device.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines whether a device may be used to view the different version ofthe media asset by determining if a third user, for whom the differentversion of the media asset is to remain blocked, has access to a deviceof the available devices. The interactive media guidance application mayexclude the device from the one or more devices that may be used to viewthe different version of the media asset if the third user has access tothe device.

In some embodiments, when determining whether a device may be used toview the different version of the media asset, the interactive mediaguidance application may access a data structure associated with thedevice (e.g., data structure storing information about the users of thedevice) and query for authorized users of the device. The interactivemedia guidance application may then access databases associated witheach of the authorized users of the device (e.g., user profile databasesof each authorized user) and query for the parental control settingscorresponding to each of the authorized users. If the interactive mediaguidance application determines, based on the value of the parentalcontrol settings for an authorized user (i.e., the third user), that thedifferent version of the media asset is blocked for the third user, theinteractive media guidance application may exclude the device from thelist of devices that may be used to view the different version of themedia asset.

Following from the example above, the interactive media guidanceapplication may determine that a third user (e.g., Teddy's youngersister, Sue) has access to the tablet. The interactive media guidanceapplication may query a data structure storing information about theusers of the tablet to determine that Sue is an authorized user of thetablet. The interactive media guidance application may determine (e.g.,by accessing Sue's user profile database) that the parental controlsettings for Sue are more stringent than those for Teddy and Sue is notto have access to the different version of the media asset. For example,the interactive media guidance application may determine, by accessingthe parent control settings in Sue's user profile database, the parentalcontrol settings for Sue is TV-Y. In this instance, the interactivemedia guidance application may not provide the option to unblock thedifferent version of the media asset on the tablet.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the one or more devices that may be used to view thedifferent version of the media asset by determining if a device of theavailable devices is currently being used by a third user. For example,the interactive media guidance application may access a databaseassociated with the device and query for the “in use” field. If thevalue corresponding to the “in use” field is “true,” the interactivemedia guidance application may exclude the device from the one or moredevices that may be used to view the different version of the mediaasset. For example, the interactive media guidance application maydetermine that a laptop from the available devices is currently in use.For example, Sue may be viewing another media asset on the laptop oranother user Dad may be typing a document on the laptop. In thisinstance, the interactive media guidance application may not provide theoption to unblock the different version of the media asset on thelaptop.

Conventional parental control systems do not take into account that thefirst user has access to multiple devices and may share access to thesedevices with other users. Conventional parental control systems mayunblock the media asset on only one or all of the devices that the firstuser has access to. Systems and methods provided herein allow the seconduser to select devices on which the media asset is to be unblocked.Furthermore, systems and methods provided herein may make intelligentrecommendations about which devices to unblock the different version ofthe media asset for display. Thus, systems and methods provided hereinallows a user to unblock a different version of the media asset onselected devices in a streamlined fashion and is better suited for thecurrent media landscape than conventional parental control systems.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application, inresponse to receiving the selection of the devices that may be used toview different version of the media asset, generates for display anoption to communicate with the first user. For example, the interactivemedia guidance application may generate for display a prompt such as“Would you like to notify the first user that the different version ofthe media asset has been unblocked?” and selectable options “Yes” and“No” for receiving user response to the prompt. In some embodiments, theinteractive media guidance application may, in response to receiving aselection to communicate with the first user, generate for display amessage based on a template, where the message includes an option tomake modifications to the message. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may, in response to receiving a selection of the“Yes” option, retrieve a template from memory and populate empty fieldsin the template with the appropriate values to generate the message. Theinteractive media guidance application may include in the message aselectable option (e.g., a selectable “Make modification to message”prompt) to allow the user to make modifications to the message.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application receivesmodifications to the message from the user and updates the messageaccording to the modifications. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may receive a selection from user Mom indicatingthat she wishes to communicate with user Teddy. In response, theinteractive media guidance application may generate for display amessage saying “Teddy, Total Recall from streaming service 2 has beenunblocked for you on your phone and your gaming machine.” along with anoption to make modifications to the message. The interactive mediaguidance application, in response to receiving the selection of theoption to make modifications to the message, may allow user Mom to inputmodifications to the message. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may determine, based on user Mom's input, the termgaming machine is to be replaced with the term Play station and theinteractive media guidance application may update the messageaccordingly. In some embodiments, the interactive media guidanceapplication then transmits the message to the first user.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines whether a pre-set period of time has elapsed and transmitsthe message to the first user only after the pre-set period of timeelapsed. For example, the interactive media guidance application maystart a count-down timer when it receives a selection from the seconduser to transmit the message to the first user. The interactive mediaguidance application may retrieve a value corresponding to the pre-setperiod of time from a database and initialize the count-down timer withthe value. The interactive media guidance application may iterativelycompare the value of the count-down timer with the value zero todetermine if the two values are equal. Upon determining the two valuesare equal (e.g., receiving a Boolean result “true” from the comparisonfunction), the interactive media guidance application may transmit themessage.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationgenerates for display, during the pre-set period of time, an option toallow the user to choose a version of the media asset different than thedifferent version of the media asset for unblocking. For example, userMom may have selected to unblock Total Recall from streaming service 2.During the pre-set period of time, the interactive media guidanceapplication may generate for display a selectable option to allow userMom to select Total Recall from streaming service 1 or Total Recall frombroadcast television instead for unblocking. Additionally oralternatively, in some embodiments, the interactive media guidanceapplication generates for display, during the pre-set period of time, anoption to allow the user to change the selection of the devices on whichthe different version of the media asset will be unblocked. For example,user Mom may have selected to unblock Total Recall from streamingservice 2 on the tablet and user Teddy's phone. During the pre-setperiod of time, the interactive media guidance application may provideuser Mom with an option to unblock Total Recall from streaming service 2on additional available devices and/or cancel the unblocking TotalRecall from streaming service 2 on the tablet and user Teddy's phone.

Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the interactivemedia guidance application generates for display, during the pre-setperiod of time, an option to allow the user to cancel unblocking thedifferent version of the media asset. Following from the example above,the interactive media guidance application may provide user mom theoption to cancel unblocking of Total Recall from streaming service 2.

Conventional parental control systems do not include in a notificationinforming the second user that the first user has requested access to ablocked media asset an option to unblock a different version of theblocked media asset. Given the plethora of content sources, the seconduser may be aware that different versions of the media asset exist andthat there might be a version suitable for the first user to view.However, in current systems, the second user has to manually search forthe different versions to determine which version would be most suitablefor unblocking. This can be a difficult and time consuming process andthe second user may choose not to unblock a different version altogetheralthough there may be a version that the second user deems suitable forunblocking. Systems and methods provided herein remove the difficultlyinvolved in determining what different versions of a media asset areavailable by automatically aggregating different versions of the mediaasset available and providing the second user an option to view andunblock the different versions of the media asset.

It should be noted the systems and/or methods described above may beapplied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative display of the interactive media guidanceapplication in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 4 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 5 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 9 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 10 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 11 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) devicein accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in allowing a userto access a blocked media asset in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in step 1402 (FIG.14) when receiving, from the first user on the first user equipmentdevice, the request to access the media asset that is blocked for thefirst user in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in step 1404 (FIG.14) when generating, for a second user, a notification that the firstuser has requested access to the media asset in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in step 1414 (FIG.14) unblocking the different version of the media asset available fromthe second source for the first user in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are provided herein for allowing a user to access adifferent version of a blocked media asset. These systems and methodsallow a first user to request access to the blocked media asset from asecond user who has authority to approve access to the blocked mediaasset. These systems and methods determine different versions of themedia asset available from different sources. These systems and methodsnotify the second user that the first user has requested access to theblocked media asset and include, in the notification, an option tounblock any one of the different versions of the media asset availablefrom the different sources. This allows the second user to determine ifthere is a version of a media asset that the second user deems suitablefor unblocking.

As referred to herein, an “interactive media guidance application,” or a“media guidance application” or, sometimes, a “media guidanceapplication” or a “guidance application” is an application that allows auser to consume, and/or navigate to content. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may be provided as an online application(i.e., provided on a website), or as a stand-alone application on aserver, user device. In some embodiments, control circuitry installed onvarious devices and platforms may execute the media guidanceapplication, as described in more detail below. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application and/or any instructions for performing any ofthe embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computer readablemedia. Computer readable media includes any media capable of storingdata. The computer readable media may be transitory, including, but notlimited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals, or may benon-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile and nonvolatilecomputer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USBdrive, DVD, CD, media card, register memory, processor caches, RandomAccess Memory (“RAM”).

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative display of the interactive media guidanceapplication in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. FIG.1 depicts an illustrative display 100 which may be displayed on any userdevice (e.g., user television equipment 1302, user computer equipment1304, and wireless user communications device 1306, described in FIG. 13below). Display 100 may include a variety of displays such as displays102 and 106. Control circuitry 1204 may cause displays 102 and 106 to bedisplayed on display 1212 using the one or more of the processesdescribed in FIGS. 10-13.

Display 102 is an example of a notification generated by the interactivemedia guidance application in response to receiving a request from afirst user to view media asset, “Total Recall” 104. For example, theinteractive media guidance application may receive a selection of amedia asset identifier corresponding to media asset “Total Recall” 104and the interactive media guidance application may generate displayscreen 102 in response.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application receivesa credential (a unique identifier associated with the first user such asa string of characters or bio-metric data) from the first user anddetermines the identity of the first user based on the credential. Forexample, the interactive media guidance application may receive acredential Teddy2004 from first user Teddy via user input interface1210. The interactive media guidance application may compare thecredential received from the first user with credentials stored indatabases in memory (e.g., user profile databases stored locally instorage 1208 or remotely at 1316 and 1318) to determine the identity ofthe first user. For example, the interactive media guidance applicationmay use the string compare function STRCMP( ) of database managementlanguage SQL to determine which stored credential matches the credentialreceived. In this instance, the interactive media guidance applicationmay determine the identity of the first user to be Teddy and mayidentify the user profile database associated with Teddy.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the parental controls settings for the first user based onthe credential received from the first user. Following from the exampleabove, the interactive media guidance application may, upon identifyingthe user profile database associated with the first user (i.e., Teddy),retrieve the value corresponding to the “parental control settings”field in Teddy's user profile. The interactive media guidanceapplication may determine, from parental control settings for Teddy,that media asset with content rating PG-13 are blocked and may blockmedia asset 104, “Total Recall” which has a content rating of TV-MA.

The interactive media guidance application may generate display 106 upondetermining the media asset “Total Recall” is blocked for the firstuser. Display screen 106 informs the first user that the requested mediaasset is blocked and includes selectable options “Enter code to unblock”108 and “Request access” 110 to allow the first user to further requestaccess to the blocked media asset from a second user authorized toprovide access. In some embodiments, upon receiving a selection ofselectable option “Request access” 110, the interactive media guidanceapplication transmits a notification the second user on a second userequipment device that the first user has requested access to the mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application mayaccess a database associated with the first user (e.g., first user'suser profile) to determine the second user who has authority to approveaccess to blocked media asset. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may access Teddy's user profile database todetermine that user Mom is listed as having authority to approve access.In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application mayaccess a database associated with the second user (e.g., second user'suser profile) to determine the second user equipment device. Forexample, the interactive media guidance application may access Mom'suser profile database to determine that the notification should be sentto her mobile device. The interactive media guidance application maytransmit the notification to the second user equipment device viacommunication network 1314 and communication paths 1308, 1310, 1312,1320 and 1322.

FIG. 2 depicts another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative display 200 which may bedisplayed on any user device (e.g., user television equipment 1302, usercomputer equipment 1304, and wireless user communications device 1306,described in FIG. 13 below). Display 200 may include a variety ofdisplays such as displays 202 and 218. The interactive media guidanceapplication may instruct user equipment 200 to generate for display avariety of display screens (e.g., display screens 202 and 218).

Display 202 is an example of a notification for a second user that thefirst user has requested access to the media asset that is blocked forthe first user. The interactive media guidance application may generatedisplay screen 202 in response to receiving a selection of selectableoption “Request access” 110. Display screen 202 includes message 204that details the identity of the first user Teddy 206, the media asset“Total Recall” 208 and the first source of the media asset “Streamingservice 1” 210. The interactive media guidance application may includein the notification selectable option “unblock” 212 and “deny” 214 thatallow the second user to allow and deny access to the media asset fromthe first source respectively.

The interactive media guidance application provides in the notificationan option to unblock a different version of the media asset availablefrom a second source different from the first source of the media asset.The interactive media guidance application may include in thenotification a selectable option such as “view different versions” 216to allow the second user to view different versions of the media assetavailable from different sources. In some embodiments, the interactivemedia guidance application may generate for display display screen 218in response to receiving user selection of option “view differentversions” 216 via user input interface 1210.

Display 218 includes different versions of the media asset (differentversion of the media asset “Total Recall” 220, different version of themedia asset “Total Recall” 226 and different version of the media asset“Total Recall” 232) available from different sources (“Streaming service1” 222, “Streaming service 2” 228 and “Broadcast Television” 234). Insome embodiments, the interactive media guidance application may accessa database (e.g., database of content providers) to determine thedifferent sources of media asset. The interactive media guidanceapplication may then query databases associated with each of thedifferent sources for the media asset to determine if the sources offera different version of the media asset. In some embodiments, theinteractive media guidance application may provide a selectable option(“Select” 224, “Select” 230 and “Select” 236) corresponding to eachdifferent version of the media asset to allow the second user to unblockany version of the content. Additionally, the interactive media guidanceapplication may include selectable option “Deny” 238 in display screen218 so that the second user can choose not to unblock any version of themedia asset.

In some embodiments, to determine the different version of the mediaasset available from a second source different from the first source ofthe media asset, the interactive media guidance application may query adatabase for a list of known sources. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may determine that available sources are “Streamingservice 1” 222, “Streaming service 2” 228 and “Broadcast Television” 234and “Streaming service 3.” The interactive media guidance applicationmay then query content databases of individual sources to determine ifthat source provides another version of the media asset. For example,the interactive media guidance application may query content database of“Streaming service 1” 222 to determine if “Streaming service 1” 222provides a different version of the media asset. The interactive mediaguidance application may repeat this process for all the availablesources to determine all the different versions of the media asset. Inthis instance, the interactive media guidance application may determinethat “Streaming service 1” 222, “Streaming service 2” 228 and “BroadcastTelevision” 234 provide another version of the media asset (“TotalRecall” 220, “Total Recall” 226 and “Total Recall” 232) but “Streamingservice 3” does not.

In some embodiments, to determine the different version of the mediaasset available from a second source different from the first source ofthe media asset, the interactive media guidance application may performa search query with the media asset identifier as the search term. Forexample, the interactive media guidance application may perform a searchquery for “Total Recall” 208. The interactive media guidance applicationmay then parse through the search query results to identify sources. Forexample, the search query may return results such as “Streaming service1” 222, “Streaming service 2” 228 and “Broadcast Television” 234 andfilm critic's blog. The interactive media guidance application maydetermine that “Streaming service 1” 222, “Streaming service 2” 228 and“Broadcast Television” 234 are sources while the film critic's blogsearch result is irrelevant. The interactive media guidance applicationmay the query content databases of “Streaming service 1” 222, “Streamingservice 2” 228 and “Broadcast Television” 234 for “Total Recall” todetermine the different versions of “Total Recall” (“Total Recall” 220,“Total Recall” 226 and “Total Recall” 232).

The interactive media guidance application, upon receiving a selectionof an option in the notification to unblock a different version of themedia asset available from a second source, unblocks the differentversion of the media asset available from the second source for thefirst user. For example, the interactive media guidance application mayreceive a selection of option “Select” 230 corresponding to differentversion of the media asset “Total Recall” 226 available from source“Streaming service 2” 228. In response, the interactive media guidanceapplication may change the value of the block flag associated with TotalRecall from streaming service 2 from “true” to “false,” allowing Teddyto access Total Recall from streaming service 2.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application queriesthe first source and the second source for available versions of themedia asset and retrieves metadata associated with each of the availableversions of the media asset. For example, the interactive media guidanceapplication may query, using database management languages (e.g., SQL,JAPQL, CODASYL), content listings databases for different sources todetermine the different versions of the media asset available from thedifferent sources. Upon determining the different versions, theinteractive media guidance application may access data structuresassociated with individual versions of the media asset to retrievemetadata corresponding with that version.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application extractsone or more factors from the metadata associated with each of theavailable versions of the media asset. For example, the interactivemedia guidance application may, using a metadata extraction tool, parsethe metadata associated a version of the media asset to extract variousfactors indicative of properties of that version of the media asset.Factors extracted may be content rating, content codes (e.g.,D—suggestive dialogue; L—coarse or crude language; S—sexual situations;V—violence), duration of content corresponding to each type of contentcode (e.g., 2 minutes of L and 3 minutes of V), subtitle information(e.g., whether inappropriate language has been removed from subtitles),frequency of certain words, cost, time of availability, source.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines a ranking of the available versions of the media asset basedon the one or more factors and generates for display the availableversions of the media asset organized in accordance with the ranking.For example, the interactive media guidance application may use asorting algorithm (e.g., quicksort, heapsort, mergesort or anothersuitable algorithm) with at least one the factors as a sorting parameterto organize the available versions of the media asset in a certainorder.

FIG. 3 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 3 depicts illustrative display 300 which may bedisplayed on any user device (e.g., user television equipment 1302, usercomputer equipment 1304, and wireless user communications device 1306,described in FIG. 13 below). The interactive media guidance applicationmay instruct control circuitry 1204 to display illustrative display 300on display 1212 using the one or more of the processes described inFIGS. 10-13.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the ranking of the available versions of the media assetbased on cost of each of the available versions of the media asset. FIG.3 depicts illustrative display 300 displaying different versions of themedia asset “Total Recall” 302 ranked in ascending order by “Cost” 304.Different version of the media asset “Total Recall” 306 from source“Broadcast Television” 308 has is free, as indicated by associated cost“Free” 310. Different version of the media asset “Total Recall” 316 fromsource “Streaming Service 2” 318 has associated cost of “$1.00” 320. Themedia asset “Total Recall” 326 from the first source “Streaming Service1” 328 has associated cost of “$2.00” 330. In this instance, theinteractive media guidance application lists different version of themedia asset “Total Recall” 306 first followed by different version ofthe media asset “Total Recall” 316 and finally the media asset “TotalRecall” 326. The interactive media guidance application may provide aselectable option (“Select” 312, “Select” 322 and “Select” 332)corresponding to each different version of the media asset to allow thesecond user to unblock any version of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the ranking of the available versions of the media assetbased on duration of content corresponding to a content code for each ofthe available versions of the media asset. The interactive mediaguidance application may rank a first version of the media asset with ashorter duration of content corresponding to the content code higherthan a second version of the media asset with a longer duration ofcontent corresponding to the content code. The interactive mediaguidance application may extract the value corresponding to duration ofcontent corresponding to a specific content code such as violence (V)from the metadata of different version of the media asset “Total Recall”306, different version of the media asset “Total Recall” 316 and themedia asset “Total Recall” 326.

For example, the duration of content corresponding to violence contentcode is 1 minute for different version of the media asset “Total Recall”306, 0 minutes for different version of the media asset “Total Recall”316 and 2 minutes for the content “Total Recall” 326. In this instance,the interactive media guidance application may list the differentversion of the media asset “Total Recall” 316 available from source“Streaming Service 2” 318 first, followed by the different version ofthe media asset “Total Recall” 306 from source “Broadcast Television”308 and finally the media asset “Total Recall” 326 from the first source“Streaming Service 1” 328.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationgenerates for display an option to view additional informationassociated with the different version of the media asset. As depicted inFIG. 3, the interactive media guidance application may generate fordisplay a selectable option (“View more information” 314, “View moreinformation” 324 and “View more information” 334) corresponding to eachdifferent version of the media asset (“Total Recall” 306, “Total Recall”316, and “Total Recall” 326) to allow the second user to view additionalinformation associated with any version of the media asset.

FIG. 4 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative display 400 which may bedisplayed on any user device (e.g., user television equipment 1302, usercomputer equipment 1304, and wireless user communications device 1306,described in FIG. 13 below). The interactive media guidance applicationmay instruct control circuitry 1204 to display illustrative display 400on display 1212 using the one or more of the processes described inFIGS. 10-13.

Display 400 includes additional information associated with thedifferent version of the media asset “Total Recall” 402 available fromsource “Broadcast Television” 404. The interactive media guidanceapplication may instruct user equipment 400 to generate the displayshown in response to receiving user selection of option “View moreinformation” 314. The interactive media guidance application maygenerate for display additional information such as a content rating 406(e.g., TV-MA), a content code 408 (e.g., L—coarse or crude language;V—violence), a description of objectionable content 410, a preview 412,a preview of objectionable content 414, and a link to an associatedwebpage 416 (e.g., official website of media asset, articles about themedia asset) and genre 418 (e.g., drama, action).

FIG. 5 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative display 500 which may bedisplayed on any user device (e.g., user television equipment 1302, usercomputer equipment 1304, and wireless user communications device 1306,described in FIG. 13 below). The interactive media guidance applicationmay instruct control circuitry 1204 to display illustrative display 500on display 1212 using the one or more of the processes described inFIGS. 10-13.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationgenerates for display the one or more factors for determining theranking of the available versions of the media asset and an option toassign one or more priority metrics to the one or more factors. FIG. 5is an example of the display that the interactive media guidanceapplication may generate to allow a user to assign one or more prioritymetrics to the one or more factors used to rank the different versionsof the media asset.

The interactive media guidance application may generate for displayfactors (grouped under “Ranking Factors” 502 in this illustrativedisplay) such as “Cost” 506, “Content Code L” 514 and “Content Code V”522 that may be used by the sorting algorithm as parameters to order theavailable versions of the media asset. The interactive media guidanceapplication may generate for display selectable priority metrics(grouped under “Priority” 504 in this illustrative display)corresponding to each factor. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may generate for display selectable prioritymetrics “1” 508, “2” 510 and “3” 512 corresponding to factor “Cost” 506.Similarly, the interactive media guidance application may generate fordisplay selectable priority metrics “1” 516, “2” 518 and “3” 520corresponding to factor “Content Code L” 514 and selectable prioritymetrics “1” 524, “2” 526 and “3” 528 corresponding to factor “ContentCode V” 522.

The second user can assign a priority metric to each of the factors toindicate the order of importance of these factors to the second userwhen determining suitability of a version of the media asset. Forexample, Mom's primary concern may be to minimize violent content thatTeddy is exposed to and her secondary desire may be to choose the lowestcost version of the media asset possible. In this case, Mom may selectpriority metric “1” 524 for factor “Content Code V” 522 and prioritymetric “2” 510 for factor “Cost” 506.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application, uponreceiving an assignment of the one or more priority metrics to the onesor more factors, determines the ranking of the available versions of themedia asset based on the assignment of the one or more priority metricsto the ones or more factors. For example, the interactive media guidanceapplication may order the available versions of the media asset using amulti-parameter weighted sorting algorithm where the factor with higherpriority is used as a sort parameter with greater weight. Following fromthe example above, the interactive media guidance application may sortthe different versions of the media asset using a weighted sortalgorithm where the sort parameter duration of content corresponding tocontent code violence has a greater weight than sort parameter cost.

FIG. 6 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative display 600 which may bedisplayed on any user device (e.g., user television equipment 1302, usercomputer equipment 1304, and wireless user communications device 1306,described in FIG. 13 below). The interactive media guidance applicationmay instruct control circuitry 1204 to display illustrative display 600on display 1212 using the one or more of the processes described inFIGS. 10-13.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application, uponreceiving the selection of the option to unblock the different versionof the media asset available from the first source different than thesecond source of the media asset, queries available devices to determineone or more devices that may be used to view the different version ofthe media asset and generates for display an option to select a devicefrom the one or more devices that may be used to view the differentversion of the media asset. FIG. 6 is an example of an interactivedisplay that the interactive media guidance application may generate toallow a user to select one or more devices on which to unblock thedifferent version of the media asset.

Upon receiving a selection of an option (e.g., “Select” 230) to unblockthe different version of the media asset “Total Recall” 602 availablefrom source “Streaming Service 2” 604 different from the first source,the interactive media guidance application may query a databasecontaining a list of all available devices (e.g., a registered devicesdatabase) to determine all devices that may be used to view thedifferent version of the media asset. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may determine that registered devices include“Teddy's Phone” 608, “Family Tablet” 612, “Gaming Machine” 616 and “WorkLaptop” 620 and generate for display a list of these registered deviceson display 600.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application mayprovide a prompt 606 instructing the second user to select devices fromthe list of the registered devices on which to unblock the differentversion of the media asset. The interactive media guidance applicationmay generate for display selectable options corresponding to each device(e.g., “Select” 610 corresponding to “Teddy's Phone” 608, “Select” 614corresponding to “Family Tablet” 612, “Select” 618 corresponding to“Gaming Machine” 616 and “Select” 622 corresponding to “Work Laptop”620) to receive user selection of devices.

In some embodiments, interactive media guidance application, uponreceiving a selection of the device, unblocks the different version ofthe media asset on the selected device. For example, the interactivemedia guidance application may receive a selection indicating that thedifferent version of the media asset is to be unblocked on the “FamilyTablet” 612. In response, the interactive media guidance application mayaccess a data structure associated with the “Family Tablet” 612 (e.g.,device parental control settings data structure) and change the value ofthe block flag for the “Family Tablet” 612 from “true” to “false.”

FIG. 7 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative display 700 which may bedisplayed on any user device (e.g., user television equipment 1302, usercomputer equipment 1304, and wireless user communications device 1306,described in FIG. 13 below). The interactive media guidance applicationmay instruct control circuitry 1204 to display illustrative display 700on display 1212 using the one or more of the processes described inFIGS. 10-13.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application mayprovide the second user an option to unblock the different version ofthe media asset on a sub-set of the one or more devices that may be usedto view the different version of the media asset. FIG. 7 is an exampleof an interactive display that the interactive media guidanceapplication may generate to allow the second user to select, from thesub-set of the one or more devices, one or more devices on which tounblock the different version of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationgenerates for display in display 700 the option to unblock the differentversion of the media asset “Total Recall” 702 from the second source“Streaming Service 2” on devices “Teddy's Phone” 708 and “GamingMachine” 712. The interactive media guidance application may exclude,based on some criteria, devices (e.g., “Family Tablet” 612 and “WorkLaptop” 620) that were previously determined to be devices that may beused to view the different version of the media asset “Total Recall”702. The interactive media guidance application may provide selectableoption 716 to allow the second user to view the devices that wereexcluded (e.g., “Family Tablet” 612 and “Work Laptop” 620).Additionally, the interactive media guidance application may alsoprovide an option to unblock “Total Recall” 702 from the “StreamingService 2” on the excluded devices.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines whether a device may be used to view the different version ofthe media asset by comparing the property associated with the differentversion of the media asset and a primary function of the device. Forexample, the primary function of the device may be educational and onlymedia asset that has an educational property should be viewed on thedevice.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the property associated with the different version of themedia asset by retrieving metadata associated with the different versionof the media asset and extracting the property from the metadata, usingthe same or similar process as described above. Property can be but isnot limited to genre, purpose of media asset, content rating, contentcodes, frequency of certain words, source.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application excludesthe device from the one or more devices that may be used to view thedifferent version of the media asset if the property violates theprimary function of the device. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may access a data structure associated with thedevice (e.g., a device properties data structure) to determine theprimary function. For example, the interactive media guidanceapplication may determine that the primary function of “Work Laptop” 620is educational and any media asset that is not for educational purposesis not to be viewed on the device. The interactive media guidanceapplication may determine, using processes described above, that thepurpose of the different version of the media asset “Total Recall” 702from the second source “Streaming Service 2” 704 is entertainment. Inresponse, the interactive media guidance application may not provide theoption to view “Total Recall” 702 on “Work Laptop” 620.

Additionally or alternatively, the interactive media guidanceapplication may determine that the primary function of “Work Laptop” 620is work and media asset with certain content codes is not to be viewedon “Work Laptop” 620. Upon determining, using similar or same processesas described above, that “Total Recall” 702 includes at least one of thecertain content codes, the interactive media guidance application mayexclude “Work Laptop” 620 from the list of devices that may be used toview the different version of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines whether a device may be used to view the different version ofthe media asset by determining if a third user, for whom the differentversion of the media asset is to remain blocked, has access to a deviceof the available devices. The interactive media guidance application mayexclude the device from the one or more devices that may be used to viewthe different version of the media asset if the third user has access tothe device.

In some embodiments, when determining whether a device may be used toview the different version of the media asset, the interactive mediaguidance application may access a data structure associated with thedevice (e.g., data structure storing information about the users of thedevice) and query for authorized users of the device. The interactivemedia guidance application may then access databases associated witheach of the authorized users of the device (e.g., user profile databasesof each authorized user) and query for the parental control settingscorresponding to each of the authorized users. If the interactive mediaguidance application determines, based on the value of the parentalcontrol settings for an authorized user (i.e., the third user), that thedifferent version of the media asset is blocked for the third user, theinteractive media guidance application may exclude the device from thelist of devices that may be used to view the different version of themedia asset.

For example, the interactive media guidance application may determinethat a third user (e.g., Teddy's younger sister, Sue) has access to the“Family Tablet” 612. The interactive media guidance application mayquery a data structure storing information about the users of the“Family Tablet” 612 to determine that Sue is an authorized user of the“Family Tablet” 612. The interactive media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., by accessing Sue's user profile database) that theparental control settings for Sue are more stringent than those forTeddy and Sue is not to have access to the different version of themedia asset “Total Recall” 702. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may access the parental control settings in Sue'suser profile database to determine that Sue is allowed access to mediaassets with TV-Y rating only and consequently, “Total Recall” 702 withits TV-MA rating is blocked for Sue. In this instance, the interactivemedia guidance application may not provide the option to unblock “TotalRecall” 702 on the “Family Tablet” 612, as depicted in FIG. 7.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the one or more devices that may be used to view thedifferent version of the media asset by determining if a device of theavailable devices is currently being used by a third user. For example,the interactive media guidance application may access a databaseassociated with the device and query for the “in use” field. If thevalue corresponding to the “in use” field is “true,” the interactivemedia guidance application may exclude the device from the one or moredevices that may be used to view the different version of the mediaasset. For example, the interactive media guidance application maydetermine that “Work Laptop” 620 from the available devices (e.g.,“Teddy's Phone” 608, “Family Tablet” 612, “Gaming Machine” 616 and “WorkLaptop” 620) is currently in use. For example, Sue may be viewinganother media asset on the “Work Laptop” 620 or another user Dad may betyping a document on the “Work Laptop” 620. In this instance, theinteractive media guidance application may not provide the option tounblock the different version of the media asset “Total Recall” 702 onthe “Work Laptop” 620, as depicted in FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative display 800 which may bedisplayed on any user device (e.g., user television equipment 1302, usercomputer equipment 1304, and wireless user communications device 1306,described in FIG. 13 below). Display 800 may include a variety ofdisplays (e.g., displays 802 and 816). Control circuitry 1204 may causedisplays 802 and 816 to be displayed on display 1212 using the one ormore of the processes described in FIGS. 10-13.

In some embodiments, interactive media guidance application, in responseto receiving the selection of the devices that may be used to viewdifferent version of the media asset, generates for display an option tocommunicate with the first user. For example, the interactive mediaguidance application may generate for display a prompt such as “Wouldyou like to notify the first user that the different version of themedia asset has been unblocked?” and selectable options “Yes” and “No”for receiving user response to the prompt.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application may, inresponse to receiving a selection to communicate with the first user,generate for display a message based on a template, where the messageincludes an option to make modifications to the message. For example,the interactive media guidance application may, upon receiving aselection to communicate with the first user, retrieve a template frommemory and populate empty fields in the template with the appropriatevalues to generate the message. FIG. 8 depicts examples of the messagebased on a template that the interactive media guidance application maygenerate on displays 802 and 816.

Display 802 is an example of a message that the interactive mediaguidance application may generate by populating empty fields in thetemplate with appropriate values. For example, the empty fields in thetemplate may be the version of the media asset, source of the version ofthe media asset and the devices on which the version of the media assetis to be unblocked. The interactive media guidance application mayassign the appropriate values to the empty fields (“Total Recall” 804 tothe version of the media asset field, “Streaming Service 2” 806 to thesource of the version of the media asset field, “Your Phone” 808 and“Gaming Machine” 810 to the devices on which the version of the mediaasset is to be unblocked field) to generate the message depicted indisplay 802.

The interactive media guidance application may include in the message anoption to make modifications to the message. For example, in addition tothe “Send Message” 812 selectable option, the interactive media guidanceapplication may include a “Make Modification to Message” 814 option.Upon receiving a selection of the “Make Modification to Message” 814option, the interactive media guidance application may provide thesecond user with an option to input modifications to the message.

Display 816 is an example of an updated message that the interactivemedia guidance application may generate after updating the message toinclude the modifications to the message received from the second user.For example, the second user may select option 814 and inputmodifications such changes to any of the fields in the message (e.g.,the term “Gaming Machine” 810 is to be substituted with the term “PlayStation” 824) and additional information to be included in the message(e.g., time during which the different version of the media asset isunblocked 826 and viewing instructions 828). The interactive mediaguidance application may include in the updated message selectableoptions to send the message 830 and to make further modifications to themessage 832. The interactive media guidance application may, in responseto receiving selections of options “Send Message” 812 and “Send Message”830, transmit the message to the first user via communications network1314.

FIG. 9 depicts yet another illustrative display of the interactive mediaguidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative display 900 which may bedisplayed on any user device (e.g., user television equipment 1302, usercomputer equipment 1304, and wireless user communications device 1306,described in FIG. 13 below). The interactive media guidance applicationmay instruct control circuitry 1204 to display the illustrative display900 on display 1212 using the one or more of the processes described inFIGS. 10-13. Display 900 is an example of an interactive display thatthe interactive media guidance application may generate in response toreceiving a selection from the second user to send the message to thefirst user.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines whether a pre-set period of time has elapsed and transmitsthe message to the first user only after the pre-set period of timeelapsed. For example, the interactive media guidance application maystart a count-down timer when it receives a selection from the seconduser to transmit the message to the first user. The interactive mediaguidance application may retrieve a value corresponding to the pre-setperiod of time from a database and initialize the count-down timer withthe value. The interactive media guidance application may iterativelycompare the value of the count-down timer with the value zero todetermine if the two values are equal. Upon determining the two valuesare equal (e.g., receiving a Boolean result “true” from the comparisonfunction), the interactive media guidance application may transmit themessage.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance applicationgenerates for display, during the pre-set period of time, an option toallow the user to choose a version of the media asset different than thedifferent version of the media asset for unblocking. Additionally oralternatively, in some embodiments, the interactive media guidanceapplication generates for display, during the pre-set period of time, anoption to allow the user to change the selection of the devices on whichthe different version of the media asset will be unblocked. Additionallyor alternatively, in some embodiments, the interactive media guidanceapplication generates for display, during the pre-set period of time, anoption to allow the user to cancel unblocking the different version ofthe media asset.

Display 900 is an example of display that the interactive media guidanceapplication may generate during the pre-set period of time. Theinteractive media guidance application may include in the display anindication of the pre-set period of time 902 (e.g., the valuecorresponding to the count-down timer). The interactive media guidanceapplication may provide selectable option 906 for changing the versionof the media asset to be unblocked 904. The interactive media guidanceapplication may provide selectable option 910 to change the devices onwhich the different version of the media asset is to be to be unblocked904. The interactive media guidance application may provide selectableoption 914 to cancel unblocking of the different version of the mediaasset 912. The interactive media guidance application allows the seconduser to change the version of the media asset to be unblocked, thedevices on which the different version of the media asset will beunblocked and cancel unblocking the different version of the media assetusing same or similar processes as described previously.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 10-11 show illustrative display screens that may be used toprovide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 10-11may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform.While the displays of FIGS. 10-11 are illustrated as full screendisplays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over contentbeing displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access contentinformation by selecting a selectable option provided in a displayscreen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink,etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remotecontrol or other user input interface or device. In response to theuser's indication, the media guidance application may provide a displayscreen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, suchas by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, bycontent type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, orother categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, orother organization criteria.

FIG. 10 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 1000arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 1000 may include grid 1002 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 1004, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 1006, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 1002 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 1008, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 1010. Information relatingto the program listing selected by highlight region 1010 may be providedin program information region 1012. Region 1012 may include, forexample, the program title, the program description, the time theprogram is provided (if applicable), the channel the program is on (ifapplicable), the program's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L. P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 1002 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 1014, recorded content listing 1016, andInternet content listing 1018. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 1000 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings1014, 1016, and 1018 are shown as spanning the entire time blockdisplayed in grid 1002 to indicate that selection of these listings mayprovide access to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recordedlistings, or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments,listings for these content types may be included directly in grid 1002.Additional media guidance data may be displayed in response to the userselecting one of the navigational icons 1020. (Pressing an arrow key ona user input device may affect the display in a similar manner asselecting navigational icons 1020.)

Display 1000 may also include video region 1022, advertisement 1024, andoptions region 1026. Video region 1022 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 1022 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 1002. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 1024 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 1002. Advertisement 1024 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 1002.Advertisement 1024 may be selectable and provide further informationabout content, provide information about a product or a service, enablepurchasing of content, a product, or a service, provide content relatingto the advertisement, etc. Advertisement 1024 may be targeted based on auser's profile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 1024 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 1024 maybe provided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid1002. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 1026 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 1026 may be part of display 1000(and other display screens described herein), or may be invoked by auser by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated orassignable button on a user input device. The selectable options withinoptions region 1026 may concern features related to program listings ingrid 1002 or may include options available from a main menu display.Features related to program listings may include searching for other airtimes or ways of receiving a program, recording a program, enablingseries recording of a program, setting program and/or channel as afavorite, purchasing a program, or other features. Options availablefrom a main menu display may include search options, VOD options,parental control options, Internet options, cloud-based options, devicesynchronization options, second screen device options, options to accessvarious types of media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to apremium service, options to edit a user's profile, options to access abrowse overlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 13. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 11. Video mosaic display 1100 includes selectable options 1102 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 1100, television listings option 1104is selected, thus providing listings 1106, 1108, 1110, and 1112 asbroadcast program listings. In display 1100 the listings may providegraphical images including cover art, still images from the content,video clip previews, live video from the content, or other types ofcontent that indicate to a user the content being described by the mediaguidance data in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 1108 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 1114 and text portion 1116.Media portion 1114 and/or text portion 1116 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 1114 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 1100 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 1106is larger than listings 1108, 1110, and 1112), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 12 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 1200. More specific implementationsof user equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG.13. User equipment device 1200 may receive content and data viainput/output (hereinafter “I/O”) path 1202. I/O path 1202 may providecontent (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internetcontent, content available over a local area network (LAN) or wide areanetwork (WAN), and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 1204,which includes processing circuitry 1206 and storage 1208. Controlcircuitry 1204 may be used to send and receive commands, requests, andother suitable data using I/O path 1202. I/O path 1202 may connectcontrol circuitry 1204 (and specifically processing circuitry 1206) toone or more communications paths (described below). I/O functions may beprovided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown asa single path in FIG. 12 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 1204 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 1206. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 1204 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 1208). Specifically, control circuitry 1204 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 1204 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 1204 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 1204 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 13). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 1208 thatis part of control circuitry 1204. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 1208 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 13, may be used to supplementstorage 1208 or instead of storage 1208.

Control circuitry 1204 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 1204 may also include scaler circuitry forupconverting and downconverting content into the preferred output formatof the user equipment 1200. Circuitry 1204 may also includedigital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital convertercircuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuningand encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device toreceive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning andencoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. Thecircuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, videogenerating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, andanalog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running onone or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tunersmay be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch andrecord functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tunerrecording, etc.). If storage 1208 is provided as a separate device fromuser equipment 1200, the tuning and encoding circuitry (includingmultiple tuners) may be associated with storage 1208.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 1204 using user inputinterface 1210. User input interface 1210 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 1212 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1200. For example, display 1212 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface1210 may be integrated with or combined with display 1212. Display 1212may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display(LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperaturepoly silicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display,active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display,cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display,electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performanceaddressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emittingdiode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), lasertelevision, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometricmodulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visualimages. In some embodiments, display 1212 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 1212 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 1212.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry1204. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 1204.Speakers 1214 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1200 or may be stand-alone units. The audio componentof videos and other content displayed on display 1212 may be playedthrough speakers 1214. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributedto a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio viaspeakers 1214.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 1200. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage1208), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 1204 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 1208 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 1204 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 1210. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 1210 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 1200 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 1200. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 1204 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 1204) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 1200. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 1200.Equipment device 1200 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 1210 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 1200 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 1210.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 1200 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 1204). In some embodiments, the guidanceapplication may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF),received by control circuitry 1204 as part of a suitable feed, andinterpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 1204. Forexample, the guidance application may be an EBIF application. In someembodiments, the guidance application may be defined by a series ofJAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine orother suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 1204. In some ofsuch embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 1200 of FIG. 12 can be implemented in system 1300of FIG. 13 as user television equipment 1302, user computer equipment1304, wireless user communications device 1306, or any other type ofuser equipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portablegaming machine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 12 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 1302, user computer equipment 1304, or awireless user communications device 1306. For example, user televisionequipment 1302 may, like some user computer equipment 1304, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 1304 may, like some user television equipment 1302,include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 1304, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 1306.

In system 1300, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 13 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 1302, user computer equipment 1304, wireless usercommunications device 1306) may be referred to as a “second screendevice.” For example, a second screen device may supplement contentpresented on a first user equipment device. The content presented on thesecond screen device may be any suitable content that supplements thecontent presented on the first device. In some embodiments, the secondscreen device provides an interface for adjusting settings and displaypreferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second screendevice is configured for interacting with other second screen devices orfor interacting with a social network. The second screen device can belocated in the same room as the first device, a different room from thefirst device but in the same house or building, or in a differentbuilding from the first device.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network1314. Namely, user television equipment 1302, user computer equipment1304, and wireless user communications device 1306 are coupled tocommunications network 1314 via communications paths 1308, 1310, and1312, respectively. Communications network 1314 may be one or morenetworks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice ordata network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), cable network, public switchedtelephone network, or other types of communications network orcombinations of communications networks. Paths 1308, 1310, and 1312 mayseparately or together include one or more communications paths, suchas, a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path thatsupports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections(e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitablewired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths. Path1312 is drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplaryembodiment shown in FIG. 13 it is a wireless path and paths 1308 and1310 are drawn as solid lines to indicate they are wired paths (althoughthese paths may be wireless paths, if desired). Communications with theuser equipment devices may be provided by one or more of thesecommunications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 13 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 1308, 1310, and 1312, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 1314.

System 1300 includes content source 1316 and media guidance data source1318 coupled to communications network 1314 via communication paths 1320and 1322, respectively. Paths 1320 and 1322 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 1308, 1310,and 1312. Communications with the content source 1316 and media guidancedata source 1318 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 13 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 1316 and media guidance data source 1318, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 13 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 1316 and media guidance data source 1318 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 1316 and 1318with user equipment devices 1302, 1304, and 1306 are shown as throughcommunications network 1314, in some embodiments, sources 1316 and 1318may communicate directly with user equipment devices 1302, 1304, and1306 via communication paths (not shown) such as those described abovein connection with paths 1308, 1310, and 1312.

Content source 1316 may include one or more types of contentdistribution equipment including a television distribution facility,cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programmingsources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.),intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers,on-demand media servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademarkowned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademarkowned by the American Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademarkowned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Content source 1316 may be theoriginator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcastprovider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., anon-demand content provider, an Internet provider of content of broadcastprograms for downloading, etc.). Content source 1316 may include cablesources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 1316 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 1318 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 1318may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 1318 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 1318 mayprovide user equipment devices 1302, 1304, and 1306 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 1208, andexecuted by control circuitry 1204 of a user equipment device 1200. Insome embodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 1204 of user equipment device1200 and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g.,media guidance data source 1318) running on control circuitry of theremote server. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server(such as media guidance data source 1318), the media guidanceapplication may instruct the control circuitry to generate the guidanceapplication displays and transmit the generated displays to the userequipment devices. The server application may instruct the controlcircuitry of the media guidance data source 1318 to transmit data forstorage on the user equipment. The client application may instructcontrol circuitry of the receiving user equipment to generate theguidance application displays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices1302, 1304, and 1306 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 1300 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 13.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 1314.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 1316 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 1302 and user computer equipment 1304may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 1306 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 1314. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 1316 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 1318. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 1302, user computer equipment 1304, andwireless user communications device 1306. For example, the other userequipment devices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or astreamed video. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operatein a peer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 1304 or wireless usercommunications device 1306 having content capture feature.Alternatively, the user can first transfer the content to a userequipment device, such as user computer equipment 1304. The userequipment device storing the content uploads the content to the cloudusing a data transmission service on communications network 1314. Insome embodiments, the user equipment device itself is a cloud resource,and other user equipment devices can access the content directly fromthe user equipment device on which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 12.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in allowing a userto access blocked media asset in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Process 1400 may be used to determine if the second user hasunblocked a different version of the media asset. It should be notedthat process 1400 or any step thereof could be performed on, or providedby, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 12-13. For example, process 1400may be executed by control circuitry 1204 (FIG. 12) as instructed by theinteractive media guidance application implemented on user equipment1302, 1304, and/or 1306 (FIG. 13). In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1400 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment.

Process 1400 begins at 1402, where control circuitry 1204 receives, froma first user on a first user equipment device, a request to access amedia asset that is blocked for the first user, where the media asset isavailable from a first source. For example, control circuitry 1204 mayreceive a request from the first user (e.g., Teddy) on user equipment100 to access “Total Recall from Streaming Service 1” 104. Controlcircuitry 1204 may determine that “Total Recall from Streaming Service1” 104 is blocked for the Teddy according to the parental control blocksettings for Teddy.

Process 1400 continues to 1404, where control circuitry 1204 generates,for a second user, a notification that the first user has requestedaccess to the media asset, where the notification includes an option tounblock a different version of the media asset available from a secondsource different from the first source of the media asset. For example,control circuitry 1204 may generate the notification depicted in displayscreen 202. The notification may include a selectable option “ViewDifferent Versions” 216. Upon receiving a selection of option 216 fromthe second user (e.g., Mom), the interactive media guidance applicationmay generate the display depicted in display screen 218. Display screen218 includes selectable options “Select” 230 and “Select” 236. “Select”230 allows the second user to unblock a different version of the mediaasset “Total Recall” 226 available from a different second source“Streaming Service 2” 228. “Select” 236 allows the second user tounblock a different version of the media asset “Total Recall” 232available from a different second source “Broadcast Television” 234.

Process 1400 continues to 1406, where control circuitry 1204 transmits,to a second user on a second user equipment device, the notification.For example, control circuitry 1204 may transmit the notification touser equipment 200 via communications network 1314 and suitablecommunication paths.

Process 1400 continues to 1408, where control circuitry 1204 determinesif a selection to unblock a different version of the media asset hasbeen received. For example, control circuitry 1204 may determine ifeither option “Select” 230 or “Select” 236 has been selected by thesecond user.

If, at 1408, control circuitry 1204 determines that a selection tounblock a different version of the media asset has been received,process 1400 continues to 1410. At 1410, control circuitry 1204 unblocksthe different version of the media asset available from the secondsource for the first user. For example, upon receiving selection ofoption “Select” 230, control circuitry 1204 may unblock the differentversion of the media asset “Total Recall” 226 available from the secondsource “Streaming Service 2” 228. Manners in which control circuitry1204 may perform this unblocking discussed above and below areapplicable here.

If, at 1408, control circuitry 1204 determines that no selection tounblock a different version of the media asset has been received,process 1400 continues to 1412. At 1412, control circuitry 1204determines whether a selection to unblock the media asset from the firstsource been received. For example, control circuitry 1204 may determinethe second user has selected option “Select” 224.

If, at 1412, control circuitry 1204 determines that a selection tounblock the media asset from the first source been received, process1400 continues to 1414. At 1414, control circuitry 1204 unblocks themedia asset available from the first source for the first user. Forexample, upon receiving selection of option “Select” 224, controlcircuitry 1204 may unblock the media asset “Total Recall” 220 availablefrom the first source “Streaming Service 1” 222. Manners in whichcontrol circuitry 1204 may perform this unblocking discussed above andbelow are applicable here.

If, at 1412, control circuitry 1204 determines that no selection tounblock the media asset from the first source been received, process1400 continues to 1416. At 1414, control circuitry 1204 denies the firstuser access to the media asset.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 14 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 14 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in receiving, fromthe first user on the first user equipment device, the request to accessthe media asset that is blocked for the first user in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. Steps depicted in FIG. 15 areexecuted when step 1402 of FIG. 14 begins. Process 1500 may be used todetermine if the media asset that the first user has requested access toit blocked for the first user. It should be noted that process 1500 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 12-13. For example, process 1500 may be executedby control circuitry 1204 (FIG. 12) as instructed by the interactivemedia guidance application implemented on user equipment 1302, 1304,and/or 1306 (FIG. 13). In addition, one or more steps of process 1500may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment.

Process 1500 begins at 1502, where control circuitry 1204 begins processfor receiving, from a first user on a first user equipment device, arequest to access a media asset that is blocked for the first user,where the media asset is available from a first source. Controlcircuitry 1204 may execute 1502 when 1402 of process 1400 begins.Process 1500 continues to 1504, where control circuitry 1204 generatesfor display, for the first user on the first user equipment device, aselectable option for requesting access to the media asset. For example,control circuitry 1204 may access databases containing list of mediaasset, located at media content source 1316 and media guidance datasource 1318, to determine available media asset. Control circuitry 1204may then generate for display selectable media asset identifiers, suchas text listings or graphical listings, corresponding to the availablemedia assets. The first user can request access to any media asset byselecting the associated media asset identifier.

Process 1500 continues to 1506, where control circuitry 1204, inresponse to receiving the selection of the option for requesting accessto the media asset, retrieves metadata corresponding to the media assetand extract, from the metadata, properties associated with the mediaasset. For example, upon receiving a request from the first user toaccess “Total Recall from Streaming Service 1” 104, control circuitry1204 may access a data structure associated with “Total Recall fromStreaming Service 1” 104 located at any of storage 1208, media contentsource 1316 and media guidance data source 1318 to determine the contentrating of “Total Recall from Streaming Service 1.” Manners in whichcontrol circuitry 1204 may extract a property from metadata discussedpreviously are applicable here.

Process 1500 continues to 1508, where control circuitry 1204 accessesdatabase to determine blocking criteria. For example, control circuitry1204 may determine the identity of the first user and access a databaseassociated with the first user (e.g., first user's user profiledatabase) and may retrieve values corresponding to “parental controlsettings” field to determine the blocking criteria. For example, controlcircuitry 1204 may determine that the blocking criteria for the firstuser Teddy is all media asset with content rating higher than PG-13.

Process 1500 continues to 1510, where control circuitry 1204 maydetermine if the media asset is blocked by comparing properties of themedia asset with the blocking criteria. For example, control circuitry1204 may compare the content rating of the media asset with the contentratings in the blocking criteria using a function that returns a Booleanresult for the “Block” flag.

If, at 1510, control circuitry 1204 determines that the media asset isnot blocked, process 1500 continues to 1520. At 1520, control circuitry1204 allows access to the media asset. For example, control circuitry1204 may determine that the content rating for “Total Recall fromStreaming Service 1” 104 is TV-Y, which is lower than PG-13. Controlcircuitry 1204 may determine, using the comparison function, the valueof the “Block” flag for “Total Recall from Streaming Service 1” 104 is“False” and allow the first user to access “Total Recall from StreamingService 1” 104.

If, at 1510, control circuitry 1204 determines that the media asset isblocked, process 1500 continues to 1512. At 1512, control circuitry 1204generates for display an option to enter an access code and an option torequest access from a person who has the access code. For example,control circuitry 1204 may generate selectable option “Enter Code toUnblock” 108 to allow the first user to enter an access code. Similarly,control circuitry 1204 may generate selectable option “Request Access”110 to allow the first user to request access from a person who has theaccess code. A person who has the access code is any person who isauthorized to provide access.

Process 1500 continues to 1514, where control circuitry 1204 maydetermine whether a selection of option to enter an access codereceived. For example, control circuitry 1204 may determine if the firstuser has selected the “Enter Code to Unblock” 108 option. If, at 1514,control circuitry 1204 determines that the first user has selected theoption to enter an access code, process 1500 continues to 1516. At 1516,control circuitry 1204 accesses database (e.g., database containingparental control settings) to determine the correct access code andcompare with the access code entered. For example, control circuitry1204 may access a database located at any of storage 1208, media contentsource 1316 and media guidance data source 1318 and retrieve the valuecorresponding to the access code field. Control circuitry 1204 may thencompare the correct access code with an access code received from thefirst user via user input interface 1210. For example, control circuitry1204 may instruct database management language SQL to perform thecomparison of the entered access code with the access code in thedatabase (i.e., two strings) using the string compare STRCMP( ) functionto determine if the two values match.

Process 1500 continues to 1518 where control circuitry 1204 maydetermine if the correct access code has been received. If, at 1518,control circuitry 1204 determines that the correct access code has beenreceived, process 1500 continues to 1520, where control circuitry 1204may allow access to the media asset. If, at 1518, control circuitry 1204determines that the correct access code has not been received, process1500 continues to 1522, where control circuitry 1204 denies access tothe media asset.

If, at 1514, control circuitry 1204 determines that the first user hasnot selected the option to enter an access code, process 1500 continuesto 1524. At 1524, control circuitry 1204 determines whether a selectionof option to request access from a person who has the access code hasbeen received. For example, control circuitry 1204 may determine if thefirst user has selected the “Request Access” 110 option. If, at 1524,control circuitry 1204 determines that the first user has not selectedthe option to request access from a person who has the access code,process 1500 continues to 1522. At 1522, control circuitry 1204 deniesaccess to the media asset.

If, at 1524, control circuitry 1204 determines that the first user hasselected the option to request access from a person who has the accesscode, process 1500 continues to 1526. At 1526, control circuitry 1204transmits, to a second user on a second user equipment device, anotification that the first user has requested access to the media assetavailable from the first source. For example, control circuitry 1204 maytransmit the notification depicted in display screen 202 to the seconduser on the second user equipment 200 via communications network 1314and suitable communication paths.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 15 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 15 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in generating, fora second user, a notification that the first user has requested accessto the media asset, where the notification includes an option to unblocka different version of the media asset available from a second sourcedifferent from the first source of the media asset in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. Steps depicted in FIG. 16 areexecuted when step 1404 of FIG. 14 begins. Process 1600 may be used togenerate the notification for the second user. It should be noted thatprocess 1600 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by,any of the devices shown in FIGS. 12-13. For example, process 1600 maybe executed by control circuitry 1204 (FIG. 12) as instructed by theinteractive media guidance application implemented on user equipment1302, 1304, and/or 1306 (FIG. 13). In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1600 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment.

Process 1600 begins at 1602, where control circuitry 1204 begins processfor generating, for a second user, a notification that the first userhas requested access to the media asset, where the notification includesan option to unblock a different version of the media asset availablefrom a second source different from the first source of the media asset.Control circuitry 1204 may execute 1602 when 1404 of process 1400begins. Process 1600 continues to 1604, where control circuitry 1204determines, by querying the second source, if another version of themedia asset is available. For example, control circuitry 1204 may querya database (e.g., database of content providers) in media content source1316 to determine to determine the different sources of the media asset.Control circuitry 1204 may then query databases associated with each ofthe different sources for the media asset to determine if the sourcesoffer a different version of the media asset. Manners in which controlcircuitry 1204 may perform this querying discussed previously areapplicable here.

If, at 1604, control circuitry 1204 determines that another version ofthe media asset is not available from the second source, process 1600continues to 1606, where control circuitry 1204 generates for display anoption to unblock the media asset available from the first source. At amatter of example, if control circuitry 1204 determines that anotherversion of the media asset is not available from the second source,control circuitry 1204 may exclude selectable option “View DifferentVersions” 216 from display screen 202. Control circuitry 1204 mayprovide the second user selectable option “Unblock” 212 to unblock themedia asset “Total Recall” 208 available from the first source“Streaming Service 1” 210.

If, at 1604, control circuitry 1204 determines that another version ofthe media asset is available from the second source, process 1600continues to 1608, where control circuitry 1204 extracts factors fromthe metadata associated with each of the available versions of the mediaasset. For example, control circuitry 1204 may determine that adifferent version of the media asset “Total Recall” 226 is availablefrom the second source “Streaming Service 2” 228. Control circuitry 1204may extract factors such as cost, content rating, content codes from themetadata associated with the media asset “Total Recall” 220 and thedifferent version of the media asset “Total Recall” 226. Manners inwhich the factors may be extracted discussed previously are applicablehere.

Process 1600 continues to 1610, where control circuitry 1204 determines,by querying a database, if there are priority metrics assigned to anyone of the factors. For example, the second user may have assignedpriority metrics to various factors via an interactive display similarto the one depicted in FIG. 5. If, at 1610, control circuitry 1204determines that there is no priority metric assigned to any one of thefactors, process 1600 may continue to 1614, where control circuitry 1204may determine a ranking of the available versions of the media assetbased on the one or more factors. For example, control circuitry 1204may use a sorting algorithm (e.g., quicksort, heapsort, mergesort oranother suitable algorithm) with at least one the factors as a sortingparameter to organize the available versions of the media asset in acertain order. For example, control circuitry 1204 may sort theavailable versions of the media asset based on cost.

Process 1600 continues from 1614 to 1616, where control circuitry 1204may generate for display the available versions of the media assetorganized in accordance with the ranking along with the option tounblock any one of the available versions of the media asset. Forexample, control circuitry 1204 may generate the display depicted inFIG. 3, where available versions of the media asset 306, 316, and 326are ranked in ascending order according to cost 310, 320 and 322. Eachversion of the media asset has an associated selectable option (312, 322and 332) to allow the second user to unblock that version.

If, at 1610, control circuitry 1204 determines that there is a prioritymetric assigned to one or more of the factors, process 1600 continues to1612. At 1612, control circuitry 1204 determines a ranking of theavailable versions of the media asset based on the assignment of thepriority metrics to the factors. For example, the second user may haveselected priority metric “1” 524 for factor “Content Code V” 522 andpriority metric “2” 510 for factor “Cost” 506. Control circuitry 1204determines the ranking of the different versions of the media assetusing a multi-parameter weighted sorting algorithm where the sortparameter content code V has a greater weight than sort parameter cost.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 16 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 16 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method.

Process 1600 continues from 1612 to 1616, where control circuitry 1204may generate for display the available versions of the media assetorganized in accordance with the ranking along with the option tounblock any one of the available versions of the media asset.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in unblocking thedifferent version of the media asset available from the second sourcefor the first user in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Steps depicted in FIG. 17 are executed when step 1414 ofFIG. 14 begins. Process 1700 may be used to unblock the differentversion of the media asset available from the second source for thefirst user. It should be noted that process 1700 or any step thereofcould be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS.12-13. For example, process 1700 may be executed by control circuitry1204 (FIG. 12) as instructed by the interactive media guidanceapplication implemented on user equipment 1302, 1304, and/or 1306 (FIG.13). In addition, one or more steps of process 1700 may be incorporatedinto or combined with one or more steps of any other process orembodiment.

Process 1700 begins at 1702, where control circuitry 1204 begins processfor unblocking the different version of the media asset available fromthe second source for the first user. Control circuitry 1204 may execute1702 when 1414 of process 1400 begins. Process 1700 may continue to1704, where control circuitry 1204 may generate for display an option toenter the access code. Process 1700 continues to 1706 where controlcircuitry 1204 may access a database to determine the correct accesscode and compare with the access code entered. Manners in which controlcircuitry 1204 may determine the correct access code and compare withthe access code entered discussed previously are applicable here.

Process 1700 continues to 1708 where control circuitry 1204 determinesif the correct access code has been received. Manners in which controlcircuitry 1204 may perform this determination discussed previously areapplicable here. If, at 1708, control circuitry 1204 determines that thecorrect access code has not been received, process 1700 reverts back to1704 where control circuitry 1204 may provide the second user an optionto enter the access code. If, at 1708, the interactive media guidanceapplication determines that the correct access code has been received,process 1700 continues to 1710.

At 1710, control circuitry 1204 queries a database to determine devicesthat may be used to view the different version of the media asset. Forexample, control circuitry 1204 may access a database containing a listof all available devices (e.g., a registered devices database) anddetermine the value of the block flag associated with each device.Control circuitry 1204 may have assigned the values of the block flagspreviously based on selection of devices received from the second user.For example, the second user may indicate that the different version ofmedia asset “Total Recall” 602 is to be unblocked on “Teddy's Phone” 608by selecting option “Select” 610. In this case, the control circuitry1204 may update the block flag associated with “Teddy's Phone” 608 to“False.” Additionally and alternatively, control circuitry 1204 mayassign the value of the block flag for a device based a certain criteriasuch as property of the device and parental control settings of otherauthorized users of the device. Control circuitry 1204 may determinewhich of the available devices have block flags set to “False” todetermine the devices that may be used to view the different version ofthe media asset.

Process 1700 continues to 1712, where control circuitry 1204 allows thefirst user to access the different version of the media asset on any ofdevices that may be used to view the different version of the mediaasset. For example, control circuitry 1204 may unblock the differentversion of the media asset on the available devices have block flags setto “False.”

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 17 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 17 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be appliedto, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for allowing a user to access adifferent version of a blocked media asset, the method comprising:receiving, from a first user on a first user equipment device, a requestto access a first version of a media asset, wherein the first version ofthe media asset is available from a first source; determining that themedia asset is blocked from the first user; transmitting, to a seconduser equipment device for display to a second user, information relatingto a list of a plurality of different versions of the media asset,wherein each version of the media asset is available from a respectivemedia source different from the first source; upon receiving a selectionof a second version of the media asset from the list of the plurality ofdifferent versions of the media asset, to view additional informationrelating to the second version of the media asset, transmitting, fordisplay on the second user equipment device, an indicator of a secondsource of the respective media sources for accessing the second versionand a preview of objectionable content contained in the second versionof the media asset; and upon receiving, from the second user equipmentdevice, a selection to unblock the second version of the media assetfrom the list of the plurality of different versions of the media asset,unblocking the second version of the media asset from the second sourcefor the first user.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: inresponse to receiving the request to access the first version of themedia asset: determining the plurality of different versions of themedia asset available from the respective media sources by: querying thefirst source and the respective media sources for available versions ofthe media asset; retrieving metadata associated with each of theavailable versions of the media asset; extracting one or more factorsfrom the metadata associated with each of the available versions of themedia asset; determining a ranking of the available versions of themedia asset based on the one or more factors; and generating for displaythe available versions of the media asset organized in accordance withthe ranking.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more factorsincludes a cost of each of the available versions of the media asset,and wherein determining the ranking of the available versions of themedia asset based on the one or more factors comprises: ranking thesecond version of the media asset with a lower cost higher than thefirst version of the media asset with a higher cost.
 4. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the one or more factors includes a duration of contentcorresponding to a content code for each of the available versions ofthe media asset, and wherein, determining the ranking of the availableversions of the media asset based on the one or more factors furthercomprises: ranking the second version of the media asset with a shorterduration of content corresponding to the content code higher than thefirst version of the media asset with a longer duration of contentcorresponding to the content code.
 5. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: generating for display the one or more factors fordetermining the ranking of the available versions of the media asset;generating for display an option to assign one or more priority metricsto the one or more factors; and upon receiving an assignment of the oneor more priority metrics to the ones or more factors, determining theranking of the available versions of the media asset based on theassignment of the one or more priority metrics to the ones or morefactors.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: upon receivingthe request to unblock the second version of the media asset: queryingavailable devices to determine one or more devices that may be used toview the second version of the media asset; generating for display anoption to select a device from the one or more devices that may be usedto view the second version of the media asset; and upon receiving aselection of the device, unblocking the second version of the mediaasset on the selected device.
 7. The method of claim 6, whereindetermining the one or more devices that may be used to view the secondversion of the media asset further comprises: retrieving metadataassociated with the second version of the media asset; extracting aproperty associated with the second version of the media asset from themetadata; comparing the property associated with the second version ofthe media asset and a primary function of a device of the availabledevices; and excluding the device from the one or more devices that maybe used to view the second version of the media asset if the propertyviolates the primary function of the device.
 8. The method of claim 6,wherein determining the one or more devices that may be used to view thesecond version of the media asset further comprises: determining if athird user, for whom the second version of the media asset is to remainblocked, has access to a device of the available devices; and excludingthe device from the one or more devices that may be used to view thesecond version of the media asset if the third user has access to thedevice.
 9. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the one or moredevices that may be used to view the second version of the media assetfurther comprises: determining if a device of the available devices iscurrently being used by a third user; and excluding the device from theone or more devices that may be used to view the second version of themedia asset if the device is currently being used by the third user. 10.The method of claim 6, further comprising: in response to receiving theselection of the device: generating for display an option to communicatewith the first user; upon receiving a selection to communicate with thefirst user, generating for display a message based on a template,wherein the message includes an option to make modifications to themessage; upon receiving modifications to the message, updating themessage according to the modifications; and transmitting the message tothe first user on the first user equipment device, wherein transmittingthe message may further comprise: determining whether a pre-set periodof time has elapsed; transmitting the message to the first user onlyafter the pre-set period of time; and during the pre-set period of time,generating for display an option to allow the user to perform at leastone of: choose a version of the media asset different than the secondversion of the media asset for unblocking; change the selection of thedevice on which the second version of the media asset will be unblocked;and cancel unblocking the second version of the media asset.
 11. Asystem for allowing a user to access a different version of a blockedmedia asset, the system comprising: communication circuitry; userinterface circuitry; and control circuitry configured to: receive, viathe user interface circuitry, from a first user on a first userequipment device, a request to access a first version of a media asset,wherein the first version of the media asset is available from a firstsource; determine that the media asset is blocked from the first user;transmit, via the communication circuitry, to a second user equipmentdevice for display to a second user, information relating to a list of aplurality of different versions of the media asset, wherein each versionof the media asset is available from a respective media source differentfrom the first source; upon receiving a selection of a second version ofthe media asset, from the list of the plurality of different versions ofthe media asset, to view additional information relating to the secondversion of the media asset, transmit, via the communication circuitry,for display on the second user equipment device, an indicator of asecond source of the respective media sources for accessing the secondversion and a preview of objectionable content contained in the secondversion of the media asset; and upon receiving, from the second userequipment device, a selection to unblock the second version of the mediaasset from the list of the plurality of different versions of the mediaasset, unblock the second version of the media asset from the secondsource for the first user.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: determine the plurality ofdifferent versions of the media asset available from the respectivemedia sources by: querying the first source and the respective mediasources for available versions of the media asset; retrieving metadataassociated with each of the available versions of the media asset;extracting one or more factors from the metadata associated with each ofthe available versions of the media asset; determining a ranking of theavailable versions of the media asset based on the one or more factors;and generating for display the available versions of the media assetorganized in accordance with the ranking.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein the one or more factors includes a cost of each of the availableversions of the media asset, and wherein the control circuitryconfigured to determine the ranking of the available versions of themedia asset based on the one or more factors comprises the controlcircuitry further configured to: rank the second version of the mediaasset with a lower cost higher than the first version of the media assetwith a higher cost.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or morefactors includes a duration of content corresponding to a content codefor each of the available versions of the media asset, and wherein thecontrol circuitry configured to determine the ranking of the availableversions of the media asset based on the one or more factors comprisesthe control circuitry further configured to: rank the second version ofthe media asset with a shorter duration of content corresponding to thecontent code higher than the first version of the media asset with alonger duration of content corresponding to the content code.
 15. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto: generate for display the one or more factors for determining theranking of the available versions of the media asset; generate fordisplay an option to assign one or more priority metrics to the one ormore factors; and upon receiving an assignment of the one or morepriority metrics to the ones or more factors, determine the ranking ofthe available versions of the media asset based on the assignment of theone or more priority metrics to the ones or more factors.
 16. The systemof claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:upon receiving the request to unblock the second version of the mediaasset: query available devices to determine one or more devices that maybe used to view the second version of the media asset; generate fordisplay an option to select a device from the one or more devices thatmay be used to view the second version of the media asset; and uponreceiving a selection of the device, unblock the second version of themedia asset on the selected device.
 17. The system of claim 16, whereinthe control circuitry configured to determine the one or more devicesthat may be used to view the second version of the media asset comprisesthe control circuitry further configured to: retrieve metadataassociated with the second version of the media asset; extract aproperty associated with the second version of the media asset from themetadata; compare the property associated with the second version of themedia asset and a primary function of a device of the available devices;and exclude the device from the one or more devices that may be used toview the second version of the media asset if the property violates theprimary function of the device.
 18. The system of claim 16, wherein thecontrol circuitry configured to determine the one or more devices thatmay be used to view the second version of the media asset comprises thecontrol circuitry further configured to: determine if a third user, forwhom the different version of the media asset is to remain blocked, hasaccess to a device of the available devices; and exclude the device fromthe one or more devices that may be used to view the second version ofthe media asset if the third user has access to the device.
 19. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein the control circuitry configured todetermine the one or more devices that may be used to view the secondversion of the media asset comprises the control circuitry furtherconfigured to: determine if a device of the available devices iscurrently being used by a third user; and exclude the device from theone or more devices that may be used to view the second version of themedia asset if the device is currently being used by the third user. 20.The system of claim 16, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: in response to receiving the selection of the device:generate for display an option to communicate with the first user; uponreceiving a selection to communicate with the first user, generate fordisplay a message based on a template, wherein the message includes anoption to make modifications to the message; upon receivingmodifications to the message, update the message according to themodifications; and transmit the message to the first user on the firstuser equipment device, wherein transmitting the message may comprise thecommunication circuitry and the control circuitry further configured to:determine whether a pre-set period of time has elapsed; transmit themessage to the first user only after the pre-set period of time; andduring the pre-set period of time, generate for display an option toallow the user to perform at least one of: choose a version of the mediaasset different than the second version of the media asset forunblocking; change the selection of the device on which the secondversion of the media asset will be unblocked; and cancel unblocking thesecond version of the media asset.